A SNS (Social Networking Service) has been provided as a kind of network service. Users who use the SNS share information such as profiles among them, to thereby socialize with one another. To share information, each user uses a terminal such as a smartphone or a PC (Personal Computer) to upload information to a SNS server, and to obtain information on other users uploaded to the SNS server.
A communication system for providing the above-described SNS is disclosed in Patent Literature 1 below.
The communication system for providing the SNS according to Patent Literature 1 (referred to as a “communication system of Patent Literature 1” below) includes a community providing server 300, a user terminal 400, and a network 500. The user terminal 400 and the community providing server 300 are connected to each other via the network 500. The community providing server 300 is a server for managing a community service in which particular users are participating on a network. The community providing server 300 includes a room management unit 160, a user management unit 170, a mail creation unit 140, an advertisement management unit 230, and a mail distribution unit 220. The room management unit 160 manages communities and categories thereof, and stores and manages contents contributed to the communities. The user management unit 170 stores profile information of each of the users who are participating in each community service. Moreover, the mail creation unit 140 creates electronic mails each addressed to one or more of the users stored in the user management unit 170. The advertisement management unit 230 adds, to each electronic mail, an advertisement selected on the basis of at least one of the community category, the description introducing the community, and user profile information. Further, the mail distribution unit 220 distributes the electronic mail.
The wireless communication device of Patent Literature 1 operates as will be described below, for example.
The room management unit 160 of the community providing server 300 notifies the mail creation unit 140 that a new content has been contributed to the community. Then, the mail creation unit 140 creates an electronic mail for notification that the new content has been contributed, and passes the electronic mail to the advertisement management unit 230. The advertisement management unit 230 adds, to the electronic mail, an advertisement selected on the basis of user profile information and the like. The mail distribution unit 220 distributes the electronic mail created by the advertisement management unit 230, to a corresponding user (the user terminal 400).
The communication system of Patent Literature 1 adds an advertisement that can attract user interests, to a mail for notification that a new content has been contributed, by the above-described configuration and operations, to thereby enable to share information among users as well as promote the activation of the community service.